Editorial
Transformations, metamorphoses, shape-shifting. For educators, a journey of change is often expressed using a treasured word hoard. Seeds strike root and clusters form, scaffolds are set up, strands are woven, frameworks built, thresholds crossed, and then it’s time to unpack …
Education sparks change in learners, but sometimes learners are asked to transform before getting in the game, giving rise to fair questions about whose needs are met, and what should be altered. This issue of set addresses change along two axes. Along the first axis, the research presented indicates that policy and practice around access to the transformative domain of education works well when it is nuanced and sensitive, affording diverse learners the opportunity to participate and succeed. Along the second axis, the articles demonstrate that research may inform altered—sometimes transformed—methods of teaching and ways of learning that respond both to the needs of diverse groups of learners and to the myriad challenges of our times.
When students move from secondary to tertiary study they carry with them the habits and practices that served them well in their previous learning context; however, they are sometimes unprepared for a new range of disciplinary literacy demands. Lisa Emerson with Ken Kilpin and Angela Feekery provide a lively account of the literacy challenges students face when transitioning from secondary to tertiary study. They also introduce a literacy framework that helps students to bridge the divide.
Pregnant and mothering students’ major life transformation can threaten their ability to access educational opportunities. Shona Waterhouse discusses the relationship between these students and secondary schools. Waterhouse notes that education is “a crucial factor in the later success of young mothers”, and writes about ways to enable successful inclusion.
Louise Turner and Laura Tse find that “summer learning loss is a reality for New Zealand students. It impacts on student achievement.” They explore the question of whether a voluntary summer reading programme is effective, and they offer evidence-based strategies to ensure that students avoid reversion, stay stable in what they can achieve, or continue to rise.
The next three articles address inclusion by discussing different aspects of gifted and talented students’ needs. Tracy Riley and team consider “the inclusive nature of bringing like-minded, gifted learners together, and how this can serve to enhance wellbeing, increase participation, and raise levels of achievement”. Riley and team explore the efficacy of flexible modes of being with “like minds”, whether through grouping within a withdrawal one-day-a-week class, or through grouping strategies within an inclusive, regular classroom environment, or a combination of all. Next, Manu Faaea-Semeatu views gifted and talented Pasifika students using the fictional construct of the Transformers (catchphrase, “More than meets the eye”) to provide a powerful way of thinking about the issues faced by gifted Pasifika students as they go about understanding their “own identities, languages and cultures in the New Zealand education system”. Faaea-Semeatu focuses on the relationship between Pasifika giftedness and achievement in NCEA music. Completing this group of articles, Nadine Ballam discusses inclusiveness and the protection of young people in relation to the “double-edged sword” of competition. Ballam focuses on how intentional competition—“the personal attribute of competitiveness”— is embraced by gifted young people, whether through “performance excellence” (winning), or “personal excellence” (quality of performance). Ballam identifies three themes that schools can positively respond to: “identity, drive, and opportunities”.
Journeys of change within curriculum development are addressed by the next two articles. Delia Baskerville and Dayle Anderson report on the use of drama inquiry in science learning by focusing on a case study of how “children perceived the experience of being in role as atmospheric scientists”. The inquiry method used is based on temporary transformations and a willing suspension of disbelief so that children can enter a “shared imagined world” and develop their power to imagine, and to make connections, while growing their learning area knowledge. To role play being may in some cases contribute to one day becoming. It’s no longer uncharted territory to integrate learning areas in secondary schools, too: Susan Arrowsmith and Bronwyn Wood’s study of secondary school curriculum integration explores how it is a response both to the New Zealand curriculum and to schools’ desire to enable students to gain a “deeper understanding of knowledge and the ‘real’ world”, with one teacher commenting that “all the great discoveries and progress are made in the interstices between the blocks of knowledge”. Factors important for successful implementation of an integrated curriculum include senior leadership support, flexible timetabling and spaces, and teachers’ professional development and beliefs.
Finally, in the regular Assessment News section Rosemary Hipkins and Sandy Robbins report on a new science assessment tool from the New Zealand Council for Educational Research. The Science Engagement Survey will “give schools rich information about their students’ engagement with science and their perceptions of the learning opportunities that have been provided for them”.
If you are thinking about inclusiveness, or the many ways in which change enters education, I hope you find useful information in the research presented here. While times of change may improve practice in many ways and make for excitement and dynamism (Blackadder’s “thundering rollercoaster” comes to mind), there’s also a lot to be said for what often comes after adventure, challenges, and transformations: “and they lived happily ever after”.
John Huria
Senior Editor
New Zealand Council for Educational Research